Cons
Lots of flex in the chassis. Crumb collector keyboard. Button bar on touchpad. Limited feature set offers the basics and no more.

Bottom Line

The Gateway NV59C70U desktop replacement laptop may fall into the budget-friendly price range, but it also takes a few cues from its more expensive competition, with its attractive design, an Intel Core i5 processor, and decent battery life.

Desktop replacement laptops, run the gamut from the elite and expensive to the bare-bones and budget friendly. The Gateway NV59C70U ($699.99 direct) may fall into the budget-friendly price range, but it takes a few cues from its more expensive competition. Thanks to an Intel Core i5 processor, an above-average battery, and pleasing design, the budget minded can buy this laptop without feeling like they've been taken for a ride.

Design
While many manufacturers are designing their laptops with lightweight but expensive metal or plastic decorated with eye-popping colors, the Gateway NV59C70U mixes a little bit of metal with a dash of visual flair and toned it all down with a rich espresso brown color. A decorative wave pattern covers the aluminum lid and plastic palm rest, and effectively masks any smudges or finger prints that might show up on a single colored panel.

The aluminum lid adds some strength and rigidity to the otherwise plastic chassis. The reinforcement is needed, because there is a fair amount of flex in the body of the laptop which is noticeable when lifting the laptop while open. At least the NV59C70U's tile keyboard seems more flex-friendly than the traditional and chiclet designs used on so many other models. The combination of plastic and metal didn't do a lot to keep the weight down. Measuring 1.34 by 15 by 9.96 inches (HWD), the NV59C70U weighs 6-pounds with the AC adapter.

The keyboard features the same floating key design used on the Acer Aspire AS1830T-3935 ($649 list, 3 stars). When typing, the lightweight keys provide a good tactile feel, with enough distinction to differentiate keys, light resistance, and smooth action. But all those extra nooks and crannies make me nervous that the keyboard will accumulate crumbs and dust like fuzz in a dryer lint trap. Added to the keyboard is a "social networks key" which lets you open up the social networking site of your choice with one button push.

The touchpad is a seamless part of the palm rest, with a subtle ridge on either side differentiating the touch surface from the rest of the plastic panel. The smooth plastic surface glides easily beneath the fingertips, and multitouch support lets you swipe and rotate and zoom with ease. The only snag is the use of a combined right and left button, a single bar which responds well when clicking on either end, but isn't as responsive if pressed toward the center.

The 15.6-inch screen has a resolution of 1366 by 768, which is common on laptops in this range. The resolution is high enough for 720p video playback, and the 16:9 aspect ratio widescreen is large enough for movie viewing or working with two documents side by side.

Features
The Gateway NV59C70U comes with a basic collection of features for a desktop replacement: three USB 2.0 ports, VGA and HDMI outputs, both 10/100/1000 Ethernet and 802.11n Wi-Fi, and a media card reader lets you pull photos and other files off of common format media cards (MS/Pro, MMC, SD, xD). You won't find any of the extras found on more expensive modelslike the USB 3.0 ports found on the Editors' Choice Dell XPS 15 ($1,115 direct, 4.5 stars) or the Blu-ray player on the HP Pavilion dv7-4283cl ($999.99 list, 4 stars) - but you still have a DVD burner. You also have a 640GB 5,400rpm hard drive that offers more storage space than the HP dv7-4183cl's 500GB (7,200rpm) hard drive, albeit with slower speeds. An integrated 1.3-megapixel camera sits just above the screen, and with Skype preloaded onto the system, you can video chat with family within minutes of pulling the computer out of the box.

But not everything preloaded onto the laptop is worthwhile, and you'll have to sort through some bloatware. You'll also find a desktop link to eBay, a reader program for the New York Times, an eBook reader from Barnes & Noble, a handful of game samples, and a 60-day trial subscription to Norton Internet Security with Online Backup. You'll also get a trial version of Microsoft Office, which gives you 60 days of full functionality before reverting to an abbreviated version with only Word and Excel and a side of advertisements.

Supplementing the processor is 4GB of RAM, which allows the laptop to move at a good clip, even when crunching through processor- and memory-intensive tasks like Photoshop. In our Photoshop CS5 test, the NV59C70U made it through a full series of filters and image manipulations in 4 minutes 39 seconds. By comparison, the Acer Aspire AS5742G-7200 ($750 street, 3.5 stars) took 5:01.

Given that it has integrated graphics, it's not surprising that the NV59C70U fell far behind in 3DMark06, earning 2,105 at medium settings and 1,888 at native resolution. Systems equipped with discrete graphics cardslike the HP Pavilion dv7-4283cl ($999.99 list, 4 stars), which earned 4,723 at entry levels and 3,363 native, or the Acer Aspire AS5742G-7200, which scored 7,381 entry and 5,383 nativeleft it in the dust. And unlike these laptops, the NV59C70U couldn't run either of our 3D gaming tests, Crysis or Lost Planet 2.

The NV59C70U stayed out in front of the pack in terms of battery life, squeezing 4 hours and 45 minutes of life out of a 6-cell (48Wh) battery. That put it ahead of the Asus N53JF-XE1 (3:15), Acer AS5742G-7200 (3:31) and Dell XPS 15 (3:48), which all used similar 6-cell batteries.

The Gateway NV59C70U has everything it needs to be a strong basic desktop replacementa pleasing design, an Intel Core i5 processor, and decent battery life. While desktop replacements like the Editors' Choice Dell XPS 15 offer high-end features like Blu-ray, 1080p screens, and discrete graphics, they come at a $400 premium. The NV59C70U trims the extra features to deliver a budget friendly laptop with all the basics.

Brian Westover is an Analyst for the Hardware Team, reviewing laptops, desktops, and storage devices.
As a child, Brian was frequently asked "What do you want to be when you grow up?" His answer alternated between...

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